The Guarneri String Quartet, comprising Bard Conservatory faculty Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Peter Wiley, as well as John ...

The Guarneri String Quartet, comprising Bard Conservatory faculty Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Peter Wiley, as well as John Dalley, were recently interviewed by National Public Radio to discuss their plans to retire in October 2009. Click here to listen to the interview. 

Admission representatives have scheduled visits to the following festivals and conferences: Classical Singer Convention (May 29-31) ...

Admission representatives have scheduled visits to the following festivals and conferences:

• Classical Singer Convention (May 29-31)
• International Horn Symposium (June 2-3)
• Quartet Program at SUNY Fredonia (June 17)
• Yellow Barn Young Artists Program (June 26-27)
• American Harp Society Summer Institute (July 1)
• Interlochen Arts Academy (July 20)
• Int'l Double Reed Society Convention (July 22)
• Eastern Music Festival (July 24)
• Brevard Music Center (July 25)
• Music@Menlo Young Performers Program (July 28)
• Bowdoin International Music Festival (July 30)
• Aspen Music Festival and School (August 3)
• Meadowmount School of Music (TBD)

For more information: www.bard.edu/conservatory/ontheroad

The ongoing collaboration between Carnegie Hall and the Graduate Vocal Arts Program of the Bard College Conservatory of Music has been ...

The ongoing collaboration between Carnegie Hall and the Graduate Vocal Arts Program of the Bard College Conservatory of Music has been profiled in the New York Times. With guidance from Osvaldo Golijov and Dawn Upshaw, this Professional Training Workshop commissions new works from eight young composers tailored specifically to the voices of particular conservatory students. The two-part workshop takes place at Bard College and culminates with three performances--one in the Fisher Center, and two at Carnegie Hall. 

Click here for a review of the concerts. 

The Emerson String Quartet were awarded honorary doctorates at Bard College's one hundred forty-ninth commencement on Saturday May ...

The Emerson String Quartet were awarded honorary doctorates at Bard College's one hundred forty-ninth commencement on Saturday May 23rd. Governor David Paterson delivered the commencement address. Click here for more details. 

From the Top alumnus Shawn Moore '11 was invited to share his experiences at Bard with other From the Top participants. The full text ...

From the Top alumnus Shawn Moore '11 was invited to share his experiences at Bard with other From the Top participants. The full text of his remarks can be read by clicking here.

The Chimeng Quartet have been invited to the final round of the Fischoff Competition in South Bend, Indiana. The members of the ...

The Chimeng Quartet have been invited to the final round of the Fischoff Competition in South Bend, Indiana. 


The members of the Chimeng String Quartet are undergraduate students at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. All are from China, where they studied at the high schools attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. At Bard, they study with violinists Ida Kavafian, Arnold Steinhardt, and Weigang Li; violists Ira Weller, Steven Tenenbom and Michael Tree; and cellists Peter Wiley and Sophie Shao.

The Chinese word "Chimeng" can be translated into English as "enlightenment." The name was chosen because the Enlightenment was the theme of Bard's 2006-2007 First Year Seminar, a course taken by the members of the quartet.  (In addition to their musical studies, they are earning degrees in economics, Asian studies, Russian studies, and psychology).

The Chimeng String Quartet has performed at the Bard Music Festival and at the Chamber Music Society of Reading Pennsylvania, and in house concerts in New York City and Vero Beach, Florida. In January 2009 they made their orchestral debut with the Albany Symphony, conducted by David Alan Miller, in Takuma Itoh’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.

CLICK HERE to listen to free audio streams of the Chimeng Quartet performing works by Schubert, Zhou Long, and Joan Tower.

Fangyue He '11 performed Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor on subscription concerts of the American Symphony ...

Fangyue He '11 performed Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor on subscription concerts of the American Symphony Orchestra on Friday, April 17 and Saturday, April 18, at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. 

Ms. He's appearance with the orchestra is the result of a unique arrangement whereby Bard Conservatory students are chosen, by audition, to appear on the ASO's Fisher Center subscription series. This is the only such partnership in the United States between a conservatory of music and a major professional orchestra. 

Next season the American Symphony Orchestra will feature soprano Ariadne Greif '10, and cellist Jia Cao '10 of the Chimeng Quartet. 

Two Vocal Arts Program students have taken honors at the 2009 Palm Beach Opera Competition. Rie Miyake was the 4th place winner and ...

Two Vocal Arts Program students have taken honors at the 2009 Palm Beach Opera Competition. Rie Miyake was the 4th place winner and received  $6,000; Sung Eun Lee was the 8th place winner and received $3,000. Ms. Miyake, from Japan, is a student of conservatory facutly member Lorraine Nubar. Mr. Lee, from Korea, is a student of conservatory faculty member Patricia Misslin.

Bard Vocal Arts student Sung Eun Lee has been chosen as one of four winners of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council ...

Bard Vocal Arts student Sung Eun Lee has been chosen as one of four winners of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  On Sunday February 22 he performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra  in the Grand Finals Concert which was broadcast nationwide on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Network. Sung Eun Lee is now in his second year at Bard's Vocal Arts Program, Dawn Upshaw Artistic Director.  Further details are available at http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/auditions/national/

Four conservatory students were chosen to participate in the New York String Orchestra Seminar, under the direction of Jamie ...

Four conservatory students were chosen to participate in the New York String Orchestra Seminar, under the direction of Jamie Laredo: Oboist KC Brazeau, Violists Cindy Xu and Shuangshuang Liu, and Cellist Qizheng Liu. 

The New York Times reviewed the orchestra's two Carnegie Hall performances:
www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/arts/music/30lare.html

2008 Graduate Vocal Arts Program graduate Yohan Yi has been accepted into the Los Angeles Opera's prestigious Domingo-Thornton Young ...

2008 Graduate Vocal Arts Program graduate Yohan Yi has been accepted into the Los Angeles Opera's prestigious Domingo-Thornton Young Artists Program where he will receive professional training and experience in LA Opera productions.

George Tsontakis's Second Violin Concerto has been nominated for a GRAMMY® award in the category of Best Classical ...

George Tsontakis's Second Violin Concerto has been nominated for a GRAMMY® award in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition. This makes the second time in as many years that Bard's composition faculty has been so honored, as Joan Tower's Made in America won last year's award in the same category, in addition to two others.

The winners of the 2008 concerto competition are soprano Ariadne Greif (pictured at left) with Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et ...

The winners of the 2008 concerto competition are soprano Ariadne Greif (pictured at left) with Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et Chantefables and cellist Jia Cao with Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. Both will perform with the American Symphony Orchestra under conductor Leon Botstein sometime during the 2009/2010 season.

Composer David Bruce's opera A Bird in your Ear, which was commissioned by the Bard Conservatory for its Graduate Vocal Arts Program ...

Composer David Bruce's opera A Bird in your Ear, which was commissioned by the Bard Conservatory for its Graduate Vocal Arts Program and premiered at Bard in March 2008, has been receiving a lot of attention recently. It has been chosen to be performed at the  the New York City Opera's 2009 VOX Festival which is an annual performance forum for new opera compositions. It is also one of three finalists for the National Opera Association's new opera competition. Excerpts from all the finalists will be performed in January 2009 and the winning opera will receive a full production the following year. To listen to an excerpt from the debut performance at Bard please CLICK HERE.

Bard Conservatory faculty member Joan Tower is called "A Voice for Composers" in a recent New York Times profile. To read ...

Bard Conservatory faculty member Joan Tower is called "A Voice for Composers" in a recent New York Times profile. To read the article  CLICK HERE.

Conservatory faculty member, violinist Eugene Drucker of the Emerson Quartet, will offer a mini-course at Bard in the Spring semester ...

Conservatory faculty member, violinist Eugene Drucker of the Emerson Quartet, will offer a mini-course at Bard in the Spring semester of 2009, titled "Mann and Schoenberg: Music in Fiction and Reality."  The course will meet on three Wednesdays from 1 to 4 p.m. - February 4, 18 and 25, and will carry 1 credit.  The course is open to students in the Conservatory and throughout the College.  It is also open to a limited number of community members.  Drucker is the author of a recently published novel, The Savior.

The Bard College Conservatory of Music has received a challenge grant of $2.5 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the ...

The Bard College Conservatory of Music has received a challenge grant of $2.5 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the College announced today. The grant, which will support the liberal arts core of the Conservatory’s unique dual-degree program, is to be matched three-to-one within four years.

“The Conservatory was a bold, risky, and ultimately successful initiative, an effort to reposition the professional training of musicians within the university and the liberal arts, and by so doing, redefine what the ideal conservatory curriculum should be,” said Bard College President Leon Botstein. “The traditions of concert music need to be reimagined for future generations, and finding new educational ways of doing so is crucial. Bard is pleased to receive this support and endorsement from so distinguished a foundation..”

“I am thrilled beyond words,” said Bard Conservatory Director Robert Martin. “Nothing could mean more to us than this endorsement of our goals by the Mellon Foundation, and their confidence in our ability to achieve these goals.”

The Bard Conservatory of Music was founded in 2005 with the intent not just to become one of the nation’s best music conservatories, but also to radically change the conservatory model of music education for the 21st-century. The design of Bard’s conservatory curriculum is premised on the belief that the traditional conservatory curriculum – with a focus almost exclusively on music performance – does not adequately prepare students for contemporary careers in music.

The traditional conservatory model has remained largely unchanged for the past two hundred years, but the opportunities and demands of musical life have changed dramatically. Those who are most successful today are articulate, literate, curious, intellectually adventurous, and able to absorb new material quickly – precisely the qualities associated with a fine liberal arts education. “We believe that gifted young musicians both need and deserve a liberal arts education,” notes Melvin Chen, associate director of the Conservatory. Toward this end, Bard’s conservatory curriculum is built around a unique double-degree program that requires all students to undertake studies in music and an academic subject, culminating in both bachelor of music and bachelor of arts degrees.

“The Conservatory’s mission is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music,” Martin says. “The College and the Conservatory are committed to fostering a unified learning environment where the serious study of music is part of the education of the whole person.”

In Bard’s view, a liberal arts education is more than a few humanities courses offered to students in a conservatory setting. Conservatory students should have the experience of taking courses alongside students who are not fellow music students – with those who are passionate about history or literature or philosophy or physics. The ability to comprehend two very different worldviews is a core experience that Bard’s double-degree program offers.

While the double-degree requirement is at the core of Bard’s unique program, it is one of numerous curricular innovations. All students are required to study composition. Bard’s Conservatory Seminar integrates music theory with music history in a performance-based course. Mixed student-faculty chamber music performances are a regular part of each season. An orchestral studies course includes material on historical performance practices, readings of major works beyond those to be performed, and readings of student compositions. Concerto competition winners have the opportunity to perform as soloists with the American Symphony Orchestra. The graduate Vocal Arts Program includes lectures on the poetry and art history associated with each period of art song, as well as a career development workshop. The Piano Fellows program provides a two-year collaboration between competitively selected young pianists and instrumentalists and singers through master classes, lessons, and recitals.

Bard’s Conservatory faculty has embraced the opportunities to continue to explore their own “double” areas of expertise. Violin faculty member Eugene Drucker, a member of the Emerson String Quartet who has also recently published a novel, will offer a mini-course at Bard in the coming semester on music and literature. Associate director and pianist Melvin Chen, who also holds a Harvard Ph.D. in chemistry, offers courses in the College on physical chemistry, computer graphics, and music and the brain. Director Robert Martin teaches a course on symbolic logic in the College; his philosophy classes regularly include Conservatory students.

Since its inception, the Bard College Conservatory of Music has enrolled 75 students and assembled a roster of 42 faculty who are renowned performing artists. Faculty musicians are on campus weekly to give lessons, coach chamber ensembles, offer master classes, and lead sectional rehearsals of the Conservatory orchestra. The faculty in music history, theory, and the liberal arts and sciences are in residence at Bard College. The Conservatory consists of the core undergraduate program and two graduate components: the Graduate Program in Vocal Arts, created and directed by Dawn Upshaw, and Conductors Institute, directed by Harold Farberman.

Within its first three years, students in the Conservatory have performed alongside faculty members at The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; at the Reading, Pennsylvania, Friends of Chamber Music; at the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society; and at the Bard Music Festival. A Bard student string quartet appeared as finalists in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, California. Five Conservatory students have appeared as soloists with the American Symphony Orchestra – winners of the annual Concerto Competition. Conservatory students will perform as soloists this season with the Albany Symphony and Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. Bard Conservatory students have received scholarships for summer study at Tanglewood, the Aspen School and Festival, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, and Pacific Music Festival. Bard’s distinguished faculty, including Richard Goode, Peter Serkin, David Krakauer, Dawn Upshaw, Arnold Steinhard, and Ida Kavafian, to name a few, have expressed satisfaction and pleasure in working with their Bard students.

Though still young, the Bard Conservatory of Music is clearly finding success, as well as widespread support, for its new approach to the conservatory experience. "With this wonderful gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the growing interest in our curriculum throughout the music community, we are confident and even more determined to achieve our goal of bringing about fundamental change in the way musicians are educated,” said Martin.

Bard Collaborative Piano Fellow Lucas Wong has received the Pianist Encouragement Award at the 2008 Marilyn Horne Foundation Song ...

Bard Collaborative Piano Fellow Lucas Wong has received the Pianist Encouragement Award at the 2008 Marilyn Horne Foundation Song Competition.